National Book Award: Winners, Finalists and Longlisted Titles

National Book Award Medals

The mission of the National Book Foundation is to celebrate the best of American literature, to expand its audience, and to enhance the cultural value of great writing in America. National Book Awards are given five categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Translated Literature, and Young People’s Literature.

Here we highlight the winners of African descent. The first African-American writer to win a National Book Award was Ralph Ellison, in 1953, for Invisible Man.

Check Out AALBC’s Coverage of the National Book Awards:  2024 – 2023 – 2017 – 2016 – 2015 – 2014 – 2013


2 Books Honored by the National Book Foundation in 2008

Winner - Nonfiction

Click for a larger image of The Hemingses Of Monticello: An American Family

The Hemingses Of Monticello: An American Family
by Annette Gordon-Reed

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List Price: $21.95
W. W. Norton & Company (Sep 08, 2009)
Nonfiction, Paperback, 816 pages
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Finalist - Poetry

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Blood Dazzler
by Patricia Smith

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    List Price: $16.00
    Coffee House Press (Sep 01, 2008)
    Poetry, Paperback, 90 pages
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